DIY Mastering: the DEFINITIVE way to go!

[volltreffer]

Yessir! In my opinion you HAVE to do DIY mastering, simply to understand why to avoid it. Listen to your stuff one year later and you'll know why it was no good idea! I tend to notice, that my ears seem to be too bad for doing ANY proper mastering job anyway...

BUT: As I'm a self-confessed dilletante, I HAVE to do the mastering myself and live with the bad results...

aXel

 

[Red Mastering]

Yessir! In my opinion you HAVE to do DIY mastering, simply to understand why to avoid it. Listen to your stuff one year later and you'll know why it was no good idea! .....

aXel

good advice,
even few weeks can make a big difference;
that's the point of mastering - fresh pair of ears,
yours can not be fresh if you just finish mix 3 hours ago...and spend days on tracking/producing it then mixing (it could be weeks)
hence you loose ability to judge objectively
and that's diy mastering sounds to me like self intercourse
it could be done, but what's the point ?

 

[Emerson Maningo]

Definitely you are right that DIY mastering is not for everyone. In my experience, I tend to learn instead of avoiding it. For example, if after one year it still does not sound right, I tend to ask why? Then I tend to check my workflow, my monitoring, my techniques, etc. I then come up with some improvements. Sooner or later, I found out that my quality has been improving. I have learn a lot in mastering by simply practicing it.

If I avoid it in the first place, I have a limited skill set in the overall independent music production process. Of course, other mastering engineers can do a better job than me. But that "eagerness" to learn is what motivates me to continue doing it myself.

 

[Red Mastering]

I understand ppl don't have a budget, fair enough.
my proposition would be - give your music to your mate, and you take his song,
then you master his track
so your approach would be still - fresh pair of ears, and with no costs,
when you try to master it yourself - then you are not mastering, just correcting mix, as mastering needs to be done by someone else,
that's just my opinion, of course